


The Songbird's Dream

by BigDithEnergy



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, My First AO3 Post, My First Fanfic, My First Work in This Fandom, Non-Consensual Drug Use, POV switches occasionally, Protective Din Djarin, Protective Grogu | Baby Yoda, Protective Siblings, Siblings, Slow To Update, Soft Din Djarin, Will add more tags as we go, World Between Worlds, and she's not dead?, but not realy, din has a younger sister?, i promise it will make sense eventually., learning to be a family, not good at writing but tying my best, past childhood trama, rateing subject to change, sporatic updates, with original stuff sprinkled in
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-06
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-19 09:41:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 18,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29872752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BigDithEnergy/pseuds/BigDithEnergy
Summary: "He knew the guild rules. No questions, forget finished jobs. Move on to the next.  No matter how hard he tried he couldn't stop thinking about how familier the young woman had seemed. He couldn't place his finger on it and it was driving him crazy."When Din completes a job that leaves him with more questions the he ought to have, curiosity gets the better of him. But the answers he finds are going to challenge all he knows to be true and force him to learn to adapt quicker then he was ready for.Amara is a young woman who just wants to escape the empire. Though she does a poor job of it she will end up getting help from an unlikely source. She is going to have to learn what it means to trust. Soon she will find that freedom comes with all sorts of new exciting and terrifying experiences, but she wont be able to ignore her destiny forever.The World Between Worlds is missing its Witness and without the one being there to protect it all of time and space will be vulnerable.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	1. We start at the beginning

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for giving my fanfic a try. this is my first time uploading a fanfic of my own. I'm not very gifted in the writing department but I like to think I'm pretty imaginative so I have planed out the main plot of this story so that it will flow alongside the tv shows plot line until the last episode of season 2 from with it will divert off on its own. I have yet to see any other fics in with Din Djarin has a sibling so I guess I'm trying to fill that void. I will be trying to update when I can. I do not want to rush this and want to make sure my chapters are just right.
> 
> I hope you enjoy.

"Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR AMARA! happy birthday to you!"

Din and his family were all gathered around their kitchen table as they celebrated his younger sister Amara's 3rd birthday. Their home was warm and smelled of sweet desserts. The sun had set not long ago and the rapidly cooling evening air breezed lightly through the open window.

Amara sat on their mothers lap as she tried to blow out her candles. It took her a few tries to get them all on her own. Once she did she let out a small happy squeak before turning to their mother for approval. Their mother just laughed a bit and patted her daughter on the head, “good job my little songbird. Are you ready for some…” she paused for a moment before finishing “CAKE!” she tickled Amara’s sides causing her to let out a squeal and wiggled to try and escape their mothers attack.

Din laughed at the scene in front of him as he waited patiently for his slice of the dessert. Their mother had spent all afternoon baking a dense berry cake with sugary glaze on top. It was something only made on special occasions and Din had been looking forward to it all week.

Their father cut up pieces for them all. As he handed over Dins slice he teased, "Now Din remember, you're not a vacuum. Maybe you could even try and taste your food for once. You act like we don't feed you."

Din gave their father a big grin as he took his slice and tried to eat his portion rather than inhale it. He watched Amara bypass the utensils all together and grab a chunk with her tiny hand and shove it straight into her mouth. Half of it ending up on her face in the process. “Ewwwwwww.” Din complained jokingly while continuing to watch Amara take another bite from what was left in her hand. She just smiled up at him, eyes crinkling and head tilting back a bit. She made a happy “mmm” around her eating at having her brother's attention.

He shook his head and finished up his own plate. He was waiting to be able to give Amara the present he and their father had worked on together for the last month. It was a necklace made of a thin braided leather rope and a small songbird pendant they carved out of a stone he’d found in the stream near the village. On the back they had carved “to Amara the songbird, love Din. He had thought very hard before coming to rest with that sentence, and he was very proud of having thought of it all on his own. The stone itself had a milky white color but when it was tilted in the light it sparked with tiny flecks of all the different colors of the rainbow. Mother said it was called being Iridescent but honestly Din didn't care.

All he cared about was whether it would make his sister happy. He remembered the day she was born his father told him, “Din, you're a big brother now. We're counting on you to help keep your sister safe okay? That's the job of an older sibling, to watch out for the young ones.” since that day Din had taken great pride in his role as an older brother and this year's present was a testament to that.

Quickly the world around Din swirled around him. The happy and warm surroundings of before shifted into one of Fear and cold.

Sounds of blaster fire fill the air as the only world Din had ever known burned down around him. Being carried by his father as they ran through the smoke filled streets of their village. The voices of their neighbors and friends rang around them, screams and cries as the battle droids snuffed out all life indiscriminately.

Din could see his mother running behind them. She clutched Amara to her chest with an iron grip. Tears cutting clean lines in the grim that was collecting on her face. She quickly turned her head to look behind them for a moment. The action caused her to stumble but she was able to keep to her feat.

The sound of the Droids we're getting closer. The sound of sobbing from somewhere hidden in the smoke was cut short with a flash of red and the sound of another blaster shot. Only an hour earlier Din had been Sleeping peacefully after the night's celebrations. The quick demolishing of their peaceful life made his mind ache with whiplash. 

He watched his mother slowly lag behind, not able to run as fast as his father. The distance between them got further and further away. 

There was another red flash of a blaster shot. It all happened so quick that his reaction time was delayed, a droid had shot his mother in the back. She let out a cry of pain. His sister screamed as they both crumbled to dirt.

“NO!” Din yelled out for them. “Stop, Dad, we have to help. Mom fell. We have to go back to Amara. Please dad. Please! we can't leave them!” His father only held him tighter, shoulders shook with a suppressed sob and he continued to run as hard as he could. He didn't look back. 

Din was crying. His eyes were so filled with tears he could barely see. He had never felt pain like this before and he didn't know what to do. He didn't understand why his father wouldn't stop. He didn't understand why he would leave them both on the ground just lying there face down in the mud. He was too young and inexperienced to understand.

Not long after Din was placed down into a small underground storage bunker, there was only enough room for him as he stared up at his father, through the tears and the fear, through the anger and confusion. His Father gave him one last look as he tried to smile down at his son for the last time. It was bittersweet and full of pain.

"We love you so much, my son. We will always be with you. You must live on for us. Okay? Live on." with that he shut the door and Din could hear his footsteps as he ran away.

Din jolted awake at the sound of a loud thud. With the nightmare fresh in his brain his hand immediately flew to his holsters blaster. Body going rigid his head scanned the cockpit of his ship. The tension relaxed from his shoulders once he realized the sound had just been his helmet falling off his lap.

The dark visor of his helmet stared up at him. He hadn't had that particular nightmare in a while. The night everyone one he knew and loved had been taken from him. The night the Mandalorian had come in time to save his life but were too late to save the lives of his family. 

His Mother, Father, and younger sister. He would be lying to himself if he said he didn't feel guilt over their deaths. He has since learned its called survivors guilt but knowing it had a name didn't make it any less consuming. As misplaced may it all be he was still the only one to make it out of that night alive, and what a waste he made of the life he was given. Maker, his parents would definitely not be too proud of some of his latest decisions.

Shaking his head of that particular train of thought, part of him wondered if this was all some sort of bad sign for how this job would end up. He knew it was sketchy. So little information on the assets, the stormtroopers guarding the client. The job sounded straightforward and simple, but Din knew better then that. He'd been in the bounty hunting business a long time and if one thing rang true threw it all it's that nothing was simple when Imps were involved.

He reasoned with himself for a moment. Justified taking this job. Taking a job from the same people who burned his old life to ashes. He needed to get a hold of the beskar, there was so much of it and it belonged back with the tribe, it would sponsor many foundlings. Besides, it's not like they would be innocent or anything. The assets probably did something to deserve the bounties on their head with the price being as high as it was. it essentially was the right thing to do when it came down to it. It was only one job after all. The empire's dead anyways. No matter how many excuses he made, deep down he knew this was not a job he was going to take pride in remembering.

After finally breaking his staring contest with his helmet he rubbed the sleep from his eye with a long sigh. Returned his helm back securely atop his head with a hiss of the latch, Din started the preparations for his ship to drop from hyperspace. He would be arriving at Arvala-7 in a few moments and the sooner he got this job behind him then better.

  
  


___ … ___

  
  
  


Amara sat on the dusty floor of the Nikto encampment watching the Baby float a small stone in the air in an attempt to earn her praise for what felt like the hundredth time.

“Good job buddy.” she said as she plucked the floating stone out of the air and placed it in her shallow pocket. Amara's voice sounded emotionless and lethargic to her own ears but the kid didn't seem to mind. He was happy with his well earned praise and continued along on his journey to find more things lying around to float to her, or possibly bugs to eat which was much grosser of the two but she couldn't blame him, she was starving too.

Pulling her legs to her chest and drawing aimless swirls in the sand beside her, Amara thought over the last few months.

She had finally escaped the empire base she was held in. she had spent the majority of her life in that base in fact. It took months of careful planning.in the end she was even able to manage springing the baby as well. Since the night of their escape he has been shoving simple thoughts and feelings into her head. She now knew his name to be Grogu, and that he seemed to hold the same affection for her that one would towards their parents.

They made it off the frozen world they were being held on only to last approximately two standard weeks before being recaptured by a band of Nikto mercenaries. The same Nikto mercenaries in fact who are currently still keeping them prisoner. Most Likely to see if they can get the bounty price increased.

Amara knew the two of them needed to escape eventually. With that eventually being preferable soon, She had spent too long under the chains of the empire and she wasn't going back without a fight. She was also almost certain she could break them both out without either of them dying at the very least, but they had nowhere to go. No way off the hot desert planet. Plus if she was injured what then, how would she protect them both if she was injured. she could barely do that while at full health. There was something else though. The Dreams told her to wait. They told her something was coming. She didn't know what it was they were waiting for but she assumed she’d know it when it happened, but at this point she has nothing else to rely on anyway. Besides, the Dream world had never led her astray before, why would it start now.

So Amara and baby Grogu waited. And waited. And waited. They were coming up to 3 weeks of waiting in this dirt and grim filled poor excuse for a hide out. Amara was sure she would have sand in her hair for the rest of her life at this point. Worst of all she was bored out of her mind. Okay maybe that wasn't the worst part but there were so many contenders if she had to pick one of them at this exact moment boredom would be it. Keeping Grogu from accidentally hurting himself in all his explorations and imaginative adventures he came up with within the room they were being kept in was the sole bit of entertainment left in her current life. Not that its much of a step down from imprisonment.

“SUB-PARAGRAPH 16 OF THE BONDSMEN GUILD PROTOCOL WAVER COMPELS YOU TO IMMEDIATELY PRODUCE SAID ASSET”

The robotic voice was defining compared to the previous silence. It was certainly loud enough to startle Amara out of her thoughts. Cursing herself for ever daring to complain about the lack of excitement only a moment ago, she quickly scooped up the baby from his spot in the sand. Clutching him close to her chest she shushed him softly, and listened to what was going on outside their large storage room.

It was a damn bounty droid. She had read about them in one of her holobooks. This would be her first time coming across one in real life, though she hoped it would be her last. From what she had read the stupid things always seem to make a mess of every situation they entered. Unfortunately her assessment of these specific droids from the holobooks seemed to hold true. It took all of 60 seconds for the blasters to start shooting.

Moving quickly Amara placed Grogu in his hoverpram, pressed the button to close the metal hood and pushed it back into a corner with some crates. The blaster fire got more intense as she worked to find something to cover the prams hiding stop.

She paused in her movements for a moment when she could hear voices shouting and threw the blaster fire. She tried to concentrate on making out what they were saying, but it was all just unintelligible noise.

Snapping out of her distraction she gathered up some netting off of another crate pile and tossed it over the pram, she made one last check that the baby would be as hidden as it was going to get given the time frame before running and jumping behind another stack of crates on the opposite side of the room. Ducking down right as the blaster fire stopped.

She waited, back pressed up against the crates. Knees tucked close making herself as small as possible. Then the blaster fire shot again, a lot louder than before and worked to break down the giant metal door. She instinctively covered her ears with her hands from how loud it was and tried to steady her breathing. She didn't know what would be coming through that door but whatever it was she would have to be prepared to fight her way out. There was a moment of silence followed by a loud screeching noise and the metal doors fell to the floor with a thud.

Amara’s heart raced as she clamped one of her hands over her nose and mouth trying to be as quiet as possible. My body was practically shaking from the adrenaline coursing through her veins.

“Anyone else?” a male voice called into the room. Silence met him as an answer.

"Great, there's two of them," she thought.

Amara heard two sets of foot sets, she assumed they belonged to the man the voice had belonged to as well as the mechanical noise of the bounty droid she heard earlier.

“The tracking fobs are still active. My sensors indicate that there are two life forms present.”

Amara tried to calm her as she heard the duo walk further into the room. "So they were after us.” She thought to herself.

A beeping sound was getting closer and louder as the two intruders moved around the room. She heard the man's steps slowly approaching her hiding place. To her relief he stopped when his attention was caught by his droid friend who called him over to the other side. Unfortunately her relief was short lived as she heard the tell tail whirring sound of the babies hoverpram opening.

Amara leaned as silently as possible to peek around the corner of her hiding spot. She saw the battle droid and a man in a cape with a shiny helmet. Their backs were turned to as they stared into the now open pod right at the kid.

“Wait. They said Fifty years old.” the man said, sounding slightly more like a question than a statement. His confusion was tangible in the space around him.

“Species age differently. Perhaps it could live many centuries. Sadly. We’ll never know.”

The bounty droid started to point his blaster at the kid who had grown unhappy with having people open his crib who weren't his caretaker. He was practically screaming for her, pushing the thought of her name into her head. He was scared of the droid. Although he didn't fully understand what was happening he knew that he was in danger.

“No!” the man moved the droid's blaster back down. “We’ll bring it in alive. Besides there's still the second one to find.”

“The commission was quite specific. The assets were to be terminated.” The bounty droid lifted its blaster to point at Grogu.

All Amara could do was watch as her body shook and she felt her eyes tear up. She never would have thought the empire would put out a kill bounty on the two of them. They must be desperate to silence her. She posed one of the biggest threats to the rebuilding of the empire if they could not get her under their control. She knew that to be true. It was a smart plan on their part, no matter how much she hated to admit.

Within moments of the droid lifting its weapon she heard a blaster shot and the thunk of the bounty droid hitting the ground. The man in the helmet had killed it without even so much as tilting his gaze from the baby. A small relief washed over her as Amara tried to fully hide behind the crate again. As she pulled away from the edge she heard a small barley perceivable thud. The small rock Grogu had levitated for her had chosen now to fall out of her pocket and give away her position. She cursed herself over for not being more careful.

Slowly she heard the man step toward her direction. She grabbed the same stone that gave away her spot and waited till the man would be just behind the crate before jumping up and chucking it at him as hard as she could. to her embarrassment the stone just bounced off the man's red chest plate pathetically before falling back to the ground at his feet.

They both stood there frozen in place. He had a blaster pistol in his right hand. Helmet staring straight at her emotionlessly. She felt tiny compared to him, only coming up to maybe his chin at best. He had a full set of durasteel armor and had some rifle on his back that Amara hadn't noticed earlier with all her panicking. She knew she was fucked.

Quickly her eyes darted over the crate toward Grogu then back to the man trying to judge whether she could out run him. Helmet man seemed to notice her intention as his shoulders tensed. Just as suddenly as they had started their stair off it ended. Amara had made many decisions in her life. Attempting to leap forward over the crate toward Grogu’s crib in the hopes of magically out maneuvering the present bounty hunter was not one of her smarter ones. Grogu reached his little arms toward her as he made a concerned noise.

To Amara’s dismay the man shot into action just as fast, dropping his blaster to the floor and reaching out to grab Amara. He wrapped his arm around hers pinning them to her sides. lifting her feet off of the ground completely with only one arm. Amara yelled out in frustration as she kicked her legs out at her opponent. She struggled and pulled but the man out powered her. She knew she was not going to escape his hold but she was pretty sure she managed to leave a few bruises in her wake

“Hey! Stop kicking” the man grunted as he wrangled your arms behind your back and clamped a pair of cuffs over them. 

As soon as he got them on he let go and Amara dashed in front of Grogu's pod half crouched. She wouldn't let this man near the baby. She wasn't going to risk them being separated. No, she would not lose anyone else she cared about ever again.

  
  


____ … ____

  
  
  


To say Din was surprised to have a tiny woman jump up from behind a crate and throw a rock at him would have been an understatement, well it was more like a large pebble then an actual rock. He had been in the bounty hunting business for many years, seen all sorts of things. This? Yeah, this was not one of them. His brain couldn't figure out if the woman somehow thought it would be enough to take him down or if it was supposed to be some distraction attempt. He guessed the latter would make the most sense. He was so shocked in fact that despite all his training and years of experience he just stood there and took her in.

She stood frozen like a statue staring back at him. If this was a distraction attempt she completely blew it by not acting. She was short, probably had missed a few meals recently. Had to be in her early to mid 20's. Her hair was a long mess of dark brown, loose and in need of a good wash. Her eyes were a matching color and shone with fear. But there was a stubborn fierceness shining through. She seemed to be caked from head to toe in dirt and her clothes were basic and fraying near the hems. Strangely, though Din was certain he hadn't come across her in his travels before she seemed eerily familiar. It gave him an uncomfortable Deja vu he couldn't quite place and it made his head hurt.

Din saw her gaze quickly shift toward the strange green baby and back to himself. She was going to make a run for it. He thought to himself, and he was right. The second his brain recognized what was happening she was springing forward causing him to make a move of his own. Truthfully she was faster and gave more of a fight then he was expecting. She even managed to land a few good kicks in the gaps of his shin plates he was certain would leave bruises in their wake. As soon as he got the cuffs on behind her back he released her from his hold. She didn't waste any time before she dashed forward quickly and skidded to a halt in front of the child’s crib. 

The Woman looked more like a feral cornered animal then a person. Knees apart and bent. Leaning forward slightly glaring up at him with half her face now covered with her hair that had fallen with her quick movements. On top of all that she might as well have let out a low growly warning sound the moment Din took even a step toward them.

Din sighed to himself quietly taking in the scene in front of him. This was a textbook definition of why he didn't work for ex-imperial warlords. He knew this job sounded too easy. Something always is screwy when imps are involved and this is definitely beyond starting to qualify.

After some time deescalating Din was finally able to get the woman to follow him out of the Nikto encampment and in the direction of his ship. He knew he could have just dragged her along but something about how familiar she looked bothered him in a way he couldn't place. A part of him couldn't stomach the idea of possibly hurting her if she decided to put up more of a fight. Of course that meant knocking her out was a no-go unless it became absolutely necessary. So instead he spent longer then he would have liked talking low and calm before he was able to coax her into coming along on her own accord.

After a few hours of walking she still hadn’t spoken a word. Not that he was known to like chatty bounties or anything. He was just starting to wonder if she even knew how. Instead she just glared at him and occasionally looked away to keep herself from tripping in the sandy mud. With her arms still cuffed behind her back she wouldn't be able to break her fall and Din honestly didn't want to deal with the muddy mess that would follow. the pram floated on the other side of her. She wouldn't let him go anywhere near it. A problem for another time he thought.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Din just wanted to get the job over with but with his ship disassembled the trio are going to be stuck on this rock a bit longer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's another chapter you you guys. don't get used to any regular updates though as I only have 2 more chapters written out atm. Hopefully I will get some more of the story down in words at a quick pace for you guys. A lot more happens in this chapter then last in my opinion so I hope you all like it.
> 
> Thank you again for choosing to read my story, enjoy!

Sand, mud, and rocks. Amara was starting to suspect that's all there was to this planet. One big hot stone hurdling threw space. The canyon the trio walked threw provided shade, but even that only cut the heat so much. There wasn't much to look at. The lack of interesting things only fueled her desire to stair at the man she was forced to travel with. Watching every little move he made. Preparing for any sign of danger from him.

Amara decided she couldn’t trust this man. Even though he hasn't tried anything to hurt her or the baby yet, didn’t mean he wouldn’t in the future. the fact that he had spoken so calmingly back in the now abandoned Nikto encampment did little to sway her judgment. She had experienced those who would pretend to be kind as long as it was in their interest to do so. What would happen as soon as the effort of pretending to be nice to her and the baby out weighted the benefits. No, she couldn't trust him. She knew he had the strength to force her along if she decided to fight him. It would have been easier for him if he had just done so from the beginning, taken less time too, but he didn't and even though she wouldn't admit it his actions made her curious.

After what felt like forever of walking. Amara decided to finally stop staring at the man so much. He had yet to even look in her direction once. Keeping his helmet facing ahead of them. Boredom was seeping into the front of her brain and the frustration of how he seemed to ignore her presence entirely was steadily growing.

Instead she focused on the high walls of stone on either side of their path, they had almost a stripy pattern. Layers of rock upon rock in varying shades of orange-ish tan. The ground was muddy in some areas and made her lose her footing more than a few times. To her luck she always saved herself before faceplanting. She also watched Grogu as he pointed at small lizards excitedly. Looking up to her face every time as if to confirm she was paying attention. He’d babble in in his baby language as if he was explaining to her what each creature was. Amara mostly just nodded alone as if she understood him.

Even though she had decided to stop her constant staring at the man they were forced to follow he still made her incredibly nervous. most likely this was for good reason. This nervousness came not just from his strength or the fact that he looked like a walking armory, although those alone would have been both completely understandable and logical reasons, for being at the very least weary of him.

No, the thing that had Amara most on edge was her certainty that he was what the Dreams told her to wait for. The Dreams were always like a constant companion, somewhat like a friend. It was a concept that hurt her brain if she tried to think about it too deeply. It was something she just accepted as face. The Dream had a will of its own and knew so much more than anyone else possibly could. It shared many secrets and guided her when she was in need of help. It gave her advice and protected her. It was the main reason she was able to escape the imperial base in the first place. So she couldn't help but wonder why the Dreams would tell her to trust and follow a man who was going to hand them back over to the empire. It just didn't make sense.

The longer they walked the more tiered Amara became. She wasn't used to this amount of exercise. Several hours must have passed since they started and her feet were protesting with every step. She had stayed silent since meeting the man and she wasn't going to start speaking now. It was better if he thought she couldn’t. The Nikto had learned of how the Dreams would occasionally show her events that had yet to happen and they would insist she tell them the future. It didn't work that way but they wouldn't have understood. Amara wouldn't have to risk him asking questions she couldn't answer if he thought she couldn't speak. She would keep up the silent act until she felt he was trustworthy and so far she was still in handcuffs. It looked like for the foreseeable future the answer to that question was to remain resounding, NOT TRUSTWORTHY.

The baby giggled and watched another lizard scurry off into a small crack in the stone wall. Amara had lost count of how many they had seen but even though that number was high Grogu still seemed just as excited with its existence as all the previous ones. He waved at all the little creatures without fail, and it was adorable. They had been stuck inside that room so long he must have been stir crazy. Any change from the four walls for that dirt room seemed amazing. Even if it was just a canyon, or did this count as a ravine. Her brain went off on a tangent as her eyes wandered around looking for anything new. She avoided looking at the shiny man as she really didn't want to look at his bucket head anymore, especially after becoming satisfied with her assessment that he wasn't an immediate threat.

After another hour of walking the man slowly came to a stop in the middle of a widened part of the canyon. It wasn't that much bigger then where they had just been but it was a change nonetheless. Looking around the area she saw nothing but rocks as had been the case for hours. Amara tilted her head to the side slightly in confusion. Watching him for any sudden movements her mind raced to figure out what he was thinking, she was starting to reevaluate her threat assessment of him only to be shocked out of her thoughts when a rather large reptilian male jumped down from above them swinging a vibro axe at the armored man.

Amara gasped, backing away so quickly that she tripped over her own feet and fell flat on her but. Panicking she pulled at the restraints that held her hands behind her back. Unsurprisingly they didn't budge. All she could do was pray to the maker she wouldn't have to defend herself. Grogu’s pram ended up right next to where she sat as they watched everything unfold. 

As the reptilian man, A Trandoshan if she was remembering correctly from her teachings on the various known races of the galaxy, pushed the bucket head further away from her and the baby with a few good shoves and swings of his axe. Just as the helmet man sent back a strong shove of his own two more Trandoshans jumped down on either side of him to join in the fight.

The man fought back with skill that must have taken a lifetime to develop. It made his movements seem almost like a violent dance. In the end no matter how much innate skill or training he had he was still outnumbered. The fight was brutal. A slash of an axe, a gun being used as a bat to smash someone's side. A blaster shot here, knife stab there. It was an event she had never witnessed in real life. As Amara watched fearfully she noticed one of the Trandoshans break off. Backing away before turning and charging her and Grogu. She didn't know what to do but she knew she had to act fast. Her body practically moved on its own. She stood up and moved in front of Grogu’s crib. She faced her back to the threat and blocked the baby's view trying to calm him. The fear he was shoving into her brain was overwhelming and she waited for the pain from the enemies axe to come. Insead she heard the bang of a rifle followed quickly by a whooshing sound, When she opened her eyes and turned around all that was left was ash floating down where the larger creature had once been. The two other Trandoshans were now nothing more than corpses lying still on the ground around him.

The man slowly lowered his rifle. His chest was moving as he looked to be catching his breath before his head turned to a small beeping box on the belt of one of the dead bodies. It looked like the one he and the droid were using when they found her and Grogu. Amara could just barely hear him swear to himself under his breath. He leaned down to pick it up, staring at it for a moment. Finally dropping it to the ground and smashing it under his boot with a heavy sigh. His shoulders sagged as his helmet tilted toward Amara and the baby. The more she watched this man the more she found him intriguing.

  
  


____ … ____

  
  
  


Amara stood next to the armored man's body staring down at it. She wasn't sure if he was just in too much pain, unconscious, or dead. Either way he wasn't moving at the moment. None of that surprised her though as she turned her head in the directions he sand crawler had sped off in. 

She still couldn't believe what she had just witnessed. Was this really the same man who fought off the three Trandoshans with only a small cut on his arm the day before. She had seen idiots make acts of tremendous stupidity before. With all the Dreams showed her this was not a new concept for her. Sometimes it was even her own actions that fell into that category. Sighing to herself she had to be honest, charging a sand crawler full of Jawa to try and retrieve ship parts all on his own was bound to top the list for a while to come.

Amara struggled with the cuffs again. The binding had begun biting into her skin slightly and her shoulders ached from her arms being forced behind her back for so long. She hoped the metal man wasn't dead. She didn't even know where they were. Her and the baby wouldn't be able to survive with her arms immobile. Makers forbid if they came across more bounty hunters while on their own. A shiver ran down Amaras spine at the thought of having to try and fend off more attackers on her own. Then there was the fact that they would have to eat and drink eventually. If the man didn't wake up her and the baby wouldn’t make it too long.

After a moment of thought more without the man moving she decided to nudge him with her boot. Poking him in the side a couple of times getting more forceful each time. On the 4th try the man shot up into a sitting position. Back stiff as a board and helmet looking around somewhat dazed like. The initial fast movement startled her and Amara took a few weary steps backward toward the hover pram but was able to keep her footing.

The man stared at her for a while, she could feel his gaze on her burning even through the opaque visor. She stared back feeling tired and hot from standing in the sun for so long, but tried to keep her face as empty of expression as possible. They just stayed there staring at each other. It was beginning to become a habit for them it seemed.

"Fuck," the man whispered to himself exasperatedly. He must have finally remembered their current situation. Slowly he got to his feet and took a few deep breaths. Turning his visor toward Amara he commanded, “don't lag behind” leaving no room for argument. He sounded frustrated and angry so she made sure to follow his orders without question. Not that she would have said anything anyways. The strange man began wordlessly trudging back toward where his now wrecked spaceship stood so he could assess the damage. 

It didn’t take them long to get back and the man immediately stomped up the ramp and began sorting through his stuff. Amara stood next to Grogu in his pram, the two of them watching as their strange captor, pressed buttons that did nothing and aggressively slammed a few cabinets shut with a frustrated grunt. he tried to test the engines, or what was left of them but they just whined and pushed out smoke. There was barely anything left of his ship. Obviously this was not how he wanted his day to go and Amara could practically feel the irritation and anger flow off him in waves. Not long after checking everything he grabbed a small bag of stuff that happened to be left behind in the wake of the Jawas and stormed over to her and the crib with a low gruff “follow.” it was another demand Amara was really starting to get sick of being ordered around. But she knew better then to disobey in any way at the moment. With great effort she coaxed her exhausted legs to keep going.

She was pretty sure she had walked more in the last two days then she had in her entire life. At least back at the base the sun wasn't sweltering. That being said she hadn't ever even SEEN the sun before so for all she knew this was what every sun felt like. She hoped not as it was uncomfortable to be under. Her cheeks and the bridge of her nose felt tight and stung a bit. Probably her first sunburn, she thought to herself. She wasn't a fan.

They walked through the rest of the day. The sun had just set and the last tinges of dusk was all that was left to light their surroundings when Amara finally got to see where they were going. A small Moisture farm. She had read about them in a holopad once too. Most of her knowledge was exclusively from holopads she thought and she hoped to change that eventually. As they got closer she saw a small being up on a tower like structure fixing some wires. The Man she followed came to a stop below the tower, his visor directed up at the other man.

“I thought you were dead,” the small being had said. The voice sounded slightly raspy and gruff with age, defiantly a male.

He came down from his tower and wiped his hands on a small rage. Now that Amara could get a better look at him she recognized him to be an Ugnaught. She had seen a few of his kind at the imperial base on the few occasions she had gotten to walk outside of her room.

He seems to almost inspect Grogu who had dropped himself from his floating Crib while Amara was distracted. He was chasing a frog, and must have thought it would taste good. The Ugnaught then shifted his gaze to her. Amara shrunk back into herself slightly, tipping her head down a little so that her hair would cover most of her face like a shield. It was a reflexive move at being Observed that she had formed over the years. She took comfort in the small amount of privacy it allowed.

“This is what caused all the fuss?” he asked the man with a gesture of his outstretched

arm to herself and the baby. He seemed almost unimpressed.

The man just gave a curt nod of his head before continuing. “My ship had been destroyed, I'm trapped here.” he was trying to fix his arm piece with a small tool the Ugnaught had handed him.

Amara stopped paying attention to their conversation and instead turned to watch the Baby. He was persistent with his hunt and it paid off. He was finally able to catch the frog with an excited squeal before hoisting it up toward Amara waddling up to her. He seemed very pleased him himself and kept pushing the single word “Eat” into her mind repetitively like a questioning chant. He held it up for her to take but she just looked down at him and gave a small shake of her head. She tried to push the thought that she wasn't hungry into his head. It was a lie, she was beyond starving, but that didn't mean she was at “eat raw frogs” level of starving. Not yet anyways. He stared up at her for a few more moments before giving in and he started to shove it in his mouth. At least he will be full tonight. It had been a long time since she had been full before bed, usually giving half of her allotted food to him so he wouldn't go hungry.

“HEY! Spit that out!” the armored man said, trying to sound commanding. Grogu just ignored him and finished swallowing his dinner whole. The man turned to Amara before continuing, “Is he supposed to eat those?” but she just stared at him silently.

After a few moments of silence the Ugnaght asked “Can she speak?”

The man sighed, “I don't know, hasn’t spoken a word since I found them. She did yell out once though so I know she can make noise when she wants to. Honestly, not my problem.” the man said, the frustration from the day still clear in his voice.

“Hmm,” the ugnaught looked thoughtful on the new information before continuing, “Come, I will make dinner. We have a long journey tomorrow if you want to get your parts back.”

The man turned his helmet as if to protest but was cut off.

“I have spoken.” The ugnaught said with an air of finality what was not to be denied before her made his way into the small home. It was obvious the rest of them were expected to follow. The man quickly went to pick up the baby and put him back in his crib before nudging Amara to walk in front of him toward the small dwelling.

Once inside she was directed to a small chair. The man carefully uncuffed her wrists from behind her back only to rebind them a little more gently this time in front of her. He then put a hand on her shoulder and gently pushed her down onto the chair before going to sit in another nearby the door. The hover pram floated next to him and was now noticeably out of her reach. Amara did not like being cut away from the kid but she wasn't in a position to do anything about it. The best she could do was keep an eye on him.

It didn't take long for the ugnaught to finish heating up some food. He placed a bowl of something she had never seen before in front of her to eat along with a napkin, some other metal objects, and a cup of what looked like water. She watched him carefully as he set aside a bowl for her captor as well before sitting down with his own. Amara waited until he started to eat before she felt it would be safe to do so as well. The food looked weird. A thick white mashed substance with kind of cooked ground meat and other small cut vegetables mixed in. She hesitantly lifted the bowl and gave it a sniff. She felt her mouth starting to water and she hoped it tasted at least half as good as it smelled. Though she acknowledged that he was hungry enough that it wouldn't quite matter what it tasted like as long as it wouldn't kill her.

  
  


____ … ____

  
  
  


Din watched as the young woman looked at her food cautiously. He knew he wasn't supposed to, but he had so many questions. After a day as frustrating as this one he relished in having something to think about that wasn't either an immediate threat or a massive problem to solve. Trying to answer some of his questions surrounding the strange woman, he hoped, would be a good distraction.

The woman leaned forward and gently took a hold of the cup with both hands. Din watched her sniff the water before evidently deciding it was safe and taking a sip. That sip turned into a greedy gulping as the entire contents of the cup was downed so fast she started choking on it. That didn't stop her thought as she just kept drinking around it anyways.

“Did you not provide the poor girl anything to drink out there?” Ugnaugh addressed Din and he felt a small pang of guilt rise in his chest. The thought that she might have been in need of water hadn't crossed his mind. He was used to bounties who could express that need to him verbally and since she hadn’t said anything he had just assumed she was fine.

“You can slow down a girl, you can have more water if you need it.” the old ugnaught teased this time addressing her directly. It reminded Din a bit too much of how his father similarly used to tease him and he squashed any rising memories back down as quickly as they appeared.

Returning his attention to the woman she now had taken a hold of the bowl, it looked like some kind of mashed root vegetable and some sort of ground meat mixed in. she sniffed this too. He wondered if she thought it could be poisoned, or perhaps she didn't know what it was? Din found the former to be most likely but decided he couldn’t be certain as she seems almost childlike sometimes. Similar to a wild animal put into a strange new situation. Everything was reacted to with weariness and caution. As if to emphasize his point, Din and the ugnaught watched the girl place the bowl on her lap and scoop a small amount of the food up on her fingers and taste it before evidently deciding it was also safe. She then grabbed a handful and all but shoved it down her throat like she hadn't eaten in days.

Din watched in slight shock at the almost feral way she seemed to try and hide her bowl close to her body. She scoffed its contents down at record speed, having completely bypassed the utensils. Surely even starving a person would still use a spoon, Din questioned. A long forgotten memory flashed through his mind before he could shove it away. The memory of his 3 year old sister shoving cake in her mouth much the same way this woman ate her dinner. Only his sister had been happy and content eating the way toddlers do, while this woman seemed starving and like a wild animal.

“Her behavior reminds me of the child prisoners of the empire from long ago.” the ugnaught said. He didn't bother to look at Din when he spoke but he didn't need to. It was clear who he had been addressing. “The empire only bothered to teach them things that furthered their usefulness. More than a few kids grew up lacking simple skills like table manners or how to properly interact with their peers for instance. Poor things.” The pity was evident in his tone.

Din thought that was some food for thought. The possibility that she had been on of those child prisoners. To simply grow up lacking the knowledge of how to eat normally, or speak normally. What else didn't she know how to do? It sounded so farfetched. The empire having had children as their prisoners. He hated the empire as much as the next person, maybe even more for what they stole from him, but child prisoners?

His curiosity was broken as he remembered why he was stuck on this planet in the first place. His job was to hand over this defenseless pair, a child and a woman that acted more like an animal so far then a human, to an ex-imperial warlord. He felt a bit sick thinking about it so he quickly shut that line of thought down and settled back into his chair a bit deeper. He had already taken the job and by the rules of the Guild his hands were tied. Yep, he was right all that time ago when he first entire this system, he was not going to be able to take any pride in completing his job.

  
  


____ … ____

Amara sat on the dry dirt at the edge of the Mudhorns mud pit. Grogu was in the pram next to her. In the time after her last meal, the Ugnaught she had learned was named Kuill had convinced her armored captor to get the mud horns egg for the Jawa in exchange for his ship parts back. She had also learned last night that this man was something called a Mandalorian. She had learned about them once as a child as part of a lesson on noticeable cultures to help her identify scenes gifted to her by the Dreams more precisely for the empire. She hadn't known any still existed and it had been so long since her lessons then that she hadn't caught on to who the man was. Not without overhearing Kuill dress him as Mando on more then a few occasions at least.

So, here she sat, watching Mando’s back disappear into the mud horns den in search of an egg for the Jawa’s, and then they would leave this planet only so that she and baby would be handed back to the empire. She knew they were not going to be nice to her once she got back. She just hoped they didn't take it out of Grogu at all.

As if he knew she was thinking about him, Grogu wined down at her. He was concerned for their Mandalorian captor. Amara didn't know why he insisted on trying to help him so much. She tried to push back the baby's thoughts of trusting the man and helping him by trying to explain that he was going to hand them back to the bad men, but that was a rather complicated concept to attempt to get across through their strange mental connection. It didn't seem to do anything beyond gain her an annoyed huff from inside the crib.

Moments later she could hear some blaster shots quickly followed by the Mandalorian being tossed out of the mudhorns den like he was made of fathers. This was exactly as expected so far and Amara just pulled her knees up in front of her and rested her chin on top while she watched.

The fight that ensued was messy. Mud coated everything. The Mandalorian was getting his ass handed to him. He was starting to lose. Amara felt herself getting anxious, despite her better judgment she couldn't help but worry about this man she barely knew. It frustrated her to no end. Right when things seemed most dire Grogu decided he wanted to help this man by using the force to levitate the entire mudhorn off the ground a few feet. It was the biggest object she had ever witnessed him moving and a sense of amazed pride welled within her. The animal was effectively stopped in its tracks, kicking its legs as it levitated above the ground. Mando just stood there for a moment before looking over at Amara and the kid then back at the mudhorn with what was probably an intense confusion. He was slow to act. 

Amara knew this was too big a task for Grogu and he was pushing well past his limits. The mudhorn started to drop back to the ground and In an attempt to help the kid not kill himself through exhaustion she put her dislike for the Mandalorian aside and reached out with the force to help in the only as she knew how. She held out her arms and started to try and choke the best till it stopped moving or was taken out by the Mandalorian. An animal as big as this was, it ended up being extremely hard to use force choke on. She wasn't well practiced in this particular use of the force. Mostly her use of it was limited to her connection with the Dreams and practicing levitating small objects with Grogu. She had almost reached the point of snapping the animal's Neck before the Mandalorian finally reconnected with what was happening around him and used his vibro blade to slice the beast’s throat. As soon as it fell dead it was like a line Amara had been pulling taught had finally snapped and she watched the world tilt as her body fell to the ground and her eyes closed for a nice well deserved dive into unconsciousness.


	3. Freedom Lost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The job gets completed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Editing this chapter was hard but the next three are going to just get harder and harder to get right. I might try and shoot for one upload a week but I don't take that as a definite. I hope every one is enjoying the story so far. I have so much fun writing this out. There's some stuff coming in the next few chapters that's going to be very confusing if I don't write it out correctly so I don't know when the next update will be but hopefully within that whole "once a week" thing I just said. We'll see. Love you all for choosing to read my story.
> 
> Enjoy!

The first thing Amara noticed as she returned to consciousness was that she was no longer by that mud pit. Instead she was on a starship. The sound of the engines could be heard and felt as a constant background humming. Cracking her eyes open slowly she took in her new surroundings. She was laying on a thin mattress in a small bunk. By her feet was a hatch that was open to the rest of the ship's main hull. Amara couldn't tell if somehow this mattress was extremely comfortable or if she was just still exhausted. Either way her limbs still felt like lead. Moving her arms she noted that she was still cuffed. To be expected as she was still a bounty. Helping her captor survive his fight with that beast wouldn't change anything.

Amara lifted her hands toward the leather strap of the necklace she always kept hidden under her shit. Fiddling with the pendent always brought her comfort. It was the only personal possession she owned. A remnant of the life she was stolen from as a toddler. The words etched carefully on the back having both brought her warmth and sadness over the years.

She barely remembered her life before her imperial imprisonment. A hazy image of her mothers face. A strong protective hand holding hers tightly as they walked down a busy street. An older brother feeding her small berries one at a time while laughing happily. They were mostly snippets of happy times. The hope of more happy memories ripped away with the droid attack.

When she was younger she frequently dreamt that her older brother would come and save her. That he would come and take her away from the bad men. The older she got the more she realized that the likelihood of him even surviving the attack was near nonexistent at best. By the age of 15 she had given up any and all hope of being rescued. All that was left of her family was herself, the bird pendant and the two names etched on the back. She quickly secured the necklace back under her shirt collar.

Amara could hear muffled talking from the floor above her. It was too quiet to make out the individual words but she didn't care to. It wasn't important to her. Looking around when she didn't see the baby she knew the Mandalorian must have taken him up with him. Not having Grogu within arms reach or line of sight set off a pang of anxiety through her chest. So with that in mind she threw her legs over the side of the bed with every intention of going up above to make sure he was alright.

Before she could move to stand she felt the ship start to shake slightly. After a few minutes of this the ship settled on solid ground with a thud. The artificial gravity slowly turned off in favor of the nature one from the planted they just landed on. A few lights in the main hold of the ship sprung to life, most likely adjusting to match the light from outside. Heavy footsteps from above sounded to her captors approach. He stepped down the ladder, jumping the last few rungs and turned to face where Amara was sitting on the edge of the bunk.

“You're awake. Good, we’ve arrived. Stick close.” Mando said stern and to the point as he strapped a blaster to his hip and swung the big rifle onto his back. Without another word he opened the ramp of the ship and pressed a few buttons on his vambrace before walking down toward the small city.

The hover pram followed beside him as Amara walked close behind. She looked around taking in the new sounds and sights. She had never been in such a busy place before. It was dirty and run down, the streets full of vendors selling goods and people quickly trying to get to their next destination. The Mandalorian just continued forward. He obviously knew where he was going and seemed disinterested in the happenings around them.

They turned down a couple back alleyways. The way getting less crowded the further they went. Eventually it was just them. Without warning the Mandalorian stopped dead in front of a door. Amara was following so close behind that she collided softly with his form before stumbling back a step keeping her eyes on the ground. Mando stared down at her wordlessly for a moment before proceeding to knock on the door.

This was it, Amara thought to herself, she didn't know what lies ahead but she knew it wouldn't be good. All she could do was hope it wasn't as bad as she feared. A gate droid’s camera poked out of its hole and scanned a card Mando held up. It made a few noises before pulling back into the base and the door swooshed open revealing two dirt covered stormtroopers. 

As they walked down the dark corridor she stared at the back of the Mandalorian’s head. Even though he was handing her and Grogu back into their enemies hands, she couldn't bring herself to hate him. She knew he was just doing his job and was aware he had treated them both better than most other bounty hunters would. That tingling feeling left by the Dream that she should trust this man still lingered in the back of her head. It made no sense but for now it would have to be ignored. There were more immediate problems to deal with.

Finally they entered a large room. It was dusty and filled with crates and boxes stacked along the walls. A single desk stood in the center. It looked to have been placed there specifically for the purposes of this meeting as it was the only thing not covered in grim. Behind the desk was an older man. The imperial symbol hanging on a gold chain from his neck. She hadn't seen this man before but she knew it didn't matter, most likely he was just a puppet for higher up imperials to hide behind. Either way they were just more bad men.

Next to him stood a man in a white lab coat and glasses. He seemed nervous but excited as his eyes landed on her and the baby. She didn't like the way he was looking at them. As if they were lab experiments. In his defense, to the empire they WERE essentially glorified lab experiments.

The old man quickly walked around his desk with a tracking fob, excitement clearly lacing his voice. “Yes! Yes, yes yes yes.”

The scientist also came up beside him. They were both looking down at the baby. Amara tried to lunge forward to get in between the bad men and what she had been starting to consider her baby. As she went to move the rough gloved hand of the stormtrooper behind her shot out and grabbed a fist full of her hair. He yanked it hard pulling her back to where she had stood before. It hurt, the sharp sting causing her eyes to water and a small yelp to escape past her lips. The storm trooper let out a low dangerous chuckle quite enough that only she could hear.

The M andalorian and the two other men’s heads were turned toward her following her failed attempt to fight back. Mando’s body had tensed but he didn't move from his spot. The older man spoke to her, “so impatient. Your turn will be the next child so wait quietly.” His voice made Amara’s skin crawl.

Redirecting his attention back to his current task the scientist started to scan the baby with a red light. it was obviously too bright for him as Grogu tried to turn away and squint his eyes closed. Ignoring this the scientist continued on before turning to the old man, “this one’s very healthy.”

Next the old man turned to the storm trooper still gripping Amara’s hair. Sounding almost bored he ordered “Check to make sure she’s the right one.”

The storm trooper used his free hand to roughly yank down the back collar of Amara’s shirt, exposing her upper shoulder. She tried to struggle out of his grip but her efforts were wasted. He just tugged her hair back again for her retaliation, keeping her in place with a soft whimper. He forced her around to show the old man the imperial symbol that was burned onto her shoulder so long ago. They made sure the brand would be visible on her forever, marking her for all else to see as their property.

“Ah, good good,” the old man said, “doctor Pershing, you are free to go complete your assessments.” He dismissed doctor Pershing who then started to walk out of the room threw a door behind the desk. The hover pram followed him as the storm trooper behind Amara picked her up and tossed her over his shoulder before also following the doctor. His plastoid armor dug into her stomach as she tried to kick her legs and escape his grasp to no avail. 

Giving up her fight and any hope of escaping she stared into the Mandalorian's dark visor. He watched them leave the room and she wanted to hate him so bad. She wanted to blame him for what was to come. But no matter how she tried she just couldn't manage to make the anger stick. She felt a few tears fall down her cheeks as she unwaveringly stared where she hoped his eyes were under his visor. Then the door whooshed shut and he was cut off from view.

They had walked down so many twists and turns that she lost track of where they had come from. the doctor had told the trooper to put her into the room across from the one he took Grogu in. The trooper was not gentle about dropping her down on a metal table against the wall and left, door whooshing behind him.

Amara sat on the table with her legs pulled up tight to her chest for what felt like hours. It was probably more likely only thirty minutes, but her anxiety was running so high each second felt like an eternity. Without warning the door suddenly rushed open and the doctor from before quickly stepped into the room.

“You have caused quite a stir with your little game of hide and seek, miss” he addressed her. Holding up a clipboard in his hand, reading off the small report of her initial escape with a quiet wow to himself, moving closer to where she sat her while praising her creativity. He was now too close for her liking. Amara leaned back away from him.

“Nothing to say? My colleague dr. Hestor is extremely disappointed in your behavior. I tried to convince him to focus on the new data we were able to gather about overlooked flaws in the base security, but he doesn't seem interested in the silver linings. Eh, he was never an optimistic opportunist I suppose.” the doctor paused for a moment to scribble something on his clipboard, “He recommended that I use a sedative to keep you compliant once we had you back in our care. If you ask me I think it's a bit extreme but he is the expert in charge of your case so I'm inclined to listen to him.” 

The doctor picked up a vile of purple liquid. Holding it up in front of him in the light. He examined it for a moment before sticking it into an automatic injector. Amara’s breath hitched as she recognized the serum. This particular "sedative" was extremely painful. It had been administered to her once before and at the time she had hoped it would never happen again. Another hope to throw in the trash Amara supposed. She tried to push herself away from him but her back hit the wall. The doctor closed the distance quick, he told her it would hurt less if she didn't fight it and quickly pressed the autoinjector to her neck.

**With** a quiet hiss and click a sharp pain radiates out from her neck. She felt the drug slowly spread through her veins like fire. She started to feel like it was burning her up from the inside out. She felt her limbs start to go slack. Her head dipped forward a moment before she pulled it back and leaned it against the wall behind her. She could barely think as the drug made it feel as if her head was filled with cotton.

She heard a voice speak to her but her vision swam around so much she couldn't make out who they were. She couldn't remember who she was with, but he knew this drug would make her vulnerable to them and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

“Now just a few questions, try to answer them as best you can and we will have this all over with soon. Firstly can you tell me your designation?” his voice was starting to fade in and out but she got the gist of his question. While under the effects of the drug she was easily coaxed into talking, not able to be defiant any longer.

“Amara.”

“Ah, no. Your designation is Scientific Experimental Asset number 001. Okay lets- next question, how old-?”

She could only hear half of his next question but for the moment she was still able to guess at the correct answer. “23”

“Hmm, no that's also incorrect. You may physically be 23 but it says here that you are actually 31. It seems you were stored in cryo-stasis for 8 years after an outburst at the age of 15, at least according to these records that is. Hmm, maybe I gave you too much of the sedative. Lets try another…”

His voice trailed off into unintelligible noise or maybe she just couldn't tell what he was saying anymore. She tried to make out her surroundings but it was all just blurs of color and shadows. She wished for this to end. Her body was burning. Every nerve was on fire. The pain made thinking near impossible. She missed her family. The small weight of her bird pendant was all she could focus on. She knew they were going to put her in stasis again until they were in need of her abilities. There was no way they would risk having her awake and clear minded for too long anymore. It would be painful and she knew that to be inevitable. She would not get the chance to escape again. Her one chance for freedom was gone forever.


	4. Maybe This Escape Will Go Better?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Din finds something that changes everything and he has very little time to process the new information as there are more pressing matters to attend then sorting threw ones emotions. that will have to be saved for a later time, preferably when there is less blaster fire involved.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOW two chapters in one day? Don't get used to this as it was sorta an accident. Before I knew it I had edited the entire thing and figured, "Why not give the lovely readers an extra gift." Hopefully ill be able to upload another within a week or two tops. Remember I don't have any help with this and I was never good in English class, that being said I am trying my best and if you see any mistakes I'm sorry and also no you didn't. :) Love you all!
> 
> Enjoy!

Din walked through the streets of Navarro. His new beskar’gam weighed heavy on his body. It wasn't the weight of the metal itself, but the weight of his actions to obtain it. Paz had nearly taken his head off while expressing his disapproval in his decision to work for the ex-imperials. He tried to push all thoughts of that job out of his head. He knew the guild rules. Ask no unnecessary questions. Forget all finished jobs. Move on to the next.

No matter how hard he tried he couldn't stop thinking about how familiar the young woman had seemed. He couldn't place his finger on it and it was driving him crazy. The guilt of handing over two innocent and essentially defenseless beings to the whim of the ex-imperials left a bitter taste in the back of his mouth all on its own. The two nagging thoughts combined was a recipe for disaster. He stopped walking dead in the street. Closing his eyes for a moment and sighing he swiftly turned around and started to make his way back toward the imp hideout as quickly as he could without drawing more attention to himself.

Once he arrived he scooped the building out. The last thing he needed was to be caught snooping around there base. It didn't take him long to get onto the roof of the building and find a wire he could tap his data pad into, gaining him access to their database. If the woman was an imperial asset then they would have files on her in their system. If he was quick he could check those files, prove that he in fact did  _ not _ know her, and maybe, just maybe, be able to suppress the guilt he felt over turning her and the baby in long enough to get off world.

It took a longer then he would have liked to bypass their security and sneak through their fire walls. He had to do this carefully. If he was sloppy he could accidentally leave a trace of his tampering or worse. This little side trip could turn into an all out fire fight very quickly if he wasn't delicate. Storm troopers were terrible shots but in numbers they were not a mess Din wanted to get wrapped up in.

Finally he located a list of imperial prisoners and assets. Scrolling quickly down the list on his data pad he eventually found an image of her face with the designation SEA-001 next to it. Clean of the layer of dirt and grime that had coated her entire being while in his custody Din had to admit she was rather attractive. The familiarity was a lot stronger than before as he stared at her image.

Din tapped on her file to open it and immediately bombarded with pages upon pages of lab reports, daily observation entries, experiment video recordings and personal information. As he scrolled his body tensed up at the cold detached way the scientist had been referring to another human being. Clicking on the first video record letting it play out in front of him.

As it started up Din’s chest hitched and he froze in place. There on screen sat a little girl all alone in an empty white room. She was crying for her mother and father. It was his sister. It made no sense but it was her. Before Din’s brain even had enough time to comprehend what he was seeing and hearing, enough time to start making excuses and rationalizing how it couldn't possibly be his little sister, that he had seen her die in front of his own eyes, she yelled out for her family again. “Momma! Daddy!” she sobbed rubbing her eyes with her small fists, “Din! I want my brother!”

He watched the footage as a man in a white lab coat and a trooper came into the white room and went to grab the girl. She screamed out terrified broken only by sobs and panicked calls for her father and Din himself.

He didn't know how long he stayed there, crouched staring down at the date pad. His breathing was coming out in short quick breaths. He could feel his shock turning to pure white rage. He felt his heart break in his chest each time she screamed out for him. He couldn't take anymore and paused the video. He now knew why she looked so familiar. She now looked just like the younger version of their mother.

“No.” he said to himself out loud without meaning to. This wasn't possible, she was dead. He watched his mother get shot while holding her. No, there was no way this could be true. It had to be a trick, or maybe someone who just happened to have family with the same names, and look the same and sound the same. There were a lot of people out there in the galaxy.

No matter how much he tried to deny it. How much he tried to dismiss the facts in front of him and explain them away, he couldn't stop staring down at the paused video. It was her. He didn't know how, it made no sense, but it was her, Amara.

He started to skim through the rest of her file. The further he went the more proof he got. Amara, had by some miracle survived the desolation of their village and was kidnapped buy the empire. He could feel rage mixing with guilt and heartbreak all threatening to overflow. All this time he thought she was dead but she had actually been held by the Empire. They had practically torched her and thrown her into carbonite when she disobeyed. That's why she looked so much younger. His mind flashed to the image of her crouched down to protect the crib looking like a wild animal. Again to when she ate dinner at Kuill’s with her hands as if she didn't know how to use utensils. Dins stomach turned and he couldn't bear to read any further. She had been all alone for so many years. Surrounded by enemies with no way out. He cursed to himself. He should have recognized her. He should have helped her. Maker, he all but handed her back to her captors on a silver plate. Who knows what's happened to her since he left. His train of thought spiraled.

Out of nowhere his fathers voice seemed to appear out of the dark, “We're counting on you to help keep your sister safe, okay?”

He failed them all. He failed in his job to protect her. She was hurting alone for so many years and he didn't even know she was alive. He never even bothered to look for proof that she was gone. He just assumed it to be true and left it at that. All this time he was able to grow up with the support and protection of the Mandalorians who took him in while she was forced through hell. Maker above, and what did he do when he was given a second chance to fulfill his role and keep her safe? He handed her right back to those he should be protecting her from.

The overwhelming emotions washed over him like waves on a beach. Each one adding to the last. Guild be damned he was going to fix this. He was going to go get her and the baby she seemed so attached to out and KILL everyone else in his path. He made a silent promise to his parents, to the maker, to Amara, he wasn’t going to fail her EVER again.

It didn't take Din long to form a plan. Knock on the front door and break the security droid for a distraction. Sneak out back and blow up a wall with some explosives. An alarm started blaring within seconds of him having breached the wall. 

Din walked through the now gaping whole and found the nearest terminal to shut down the alarm with ease. The system was so old he was surprised it even functioned at all. He knew this was going to get dangerous fast, but his price as a bounty hunter wasnt high because of his looks, he was hell bent on leaving total destruction in his wake and so that was what he was going to do. The base was extremely out of date and he knew as long as he didn't go off against all the stormtroopers at once he would have minimal resistance.

Two stormtroopers showed up to inspect the new whole in the wall. As soon as their backs were to him he shot them both dead. Their bodies collapsed under them like marionettes with their strings cut. He needed no more than one blaster bolt each.

A third trooper came through the door and up to the bodies of his fellow soldiers. With a lightning fast move Din bludgeoned the man with one of the fallen troopers guns. He whipped the gun down over the troopers head before jamming it into his side and kicking his knee out from under him so he collapsed to the ground. While turning and walking away further into the base Din pointed his blaster back without sparing even a glance and shot the third trooper dead like the others.

He cleaned the next room and the corridor beyond. Using his whipcord to yank the next unsuspecting trooper backward to him where he then stabbed his vibroblade into his throat before the man could grasp what was happening to him. Din let the new corpse hit the ground and continued on in his rampage.

Seeming two doors on either side of the hall he picked the one on the right first. Shooting the control panel the door swished open and he was met with a blaster bolt to the shoulder. It hurt and forced his body to tweet back but the blast itself was reflected off his new beskar pauldron. The bruise later would suck but he didn't have time to think of that. Immediately Din shot this trooper dead like all the rest before him.

He saw the doctor in front of a table with the baby laying still on it. A medical device was making a noise as it did whatever it was programmed to do. Leveling his pistol at the doctor the man started to put his hands out in front of him.

“No, no, no, no, Please. Please. No. No, no.”

Din shot the IT-0 interrogator droid out of the air before it could more than an inch producing a spray of sparks. The doctor gasped and fell back away. Din retired the barrel of his gun toward the doctor.

“Please don't hurt him. It's just a child.” he was in between Din and the kid. He didn't have time for this. As din stalked forward he continued. “Please, No, no! Please No. No, no.”

Din shoved him aside and readjusted his gun at where the pathetic doctor sat trying to shield himself with his arms on the floor. 

Sparring one glance toward the child Din turned back to the doctor demanding in a dark tone, “what did you do to it. what did you do to it!?”

“I protected him! I protected him. If it wasn't for me he would already be dead.” the man’s voice wavered with fear and desperation. He was pathetic. He whimpered like a kicked puppy.

Quickly picking up the baby tightly close to his chest he turned to the doctor one last time. Every word fell like venom, voice lowering dangerously with barely contained murderous rage. “Where’s the girl? What did you do with her?!”

The doctor groveled and sniveled at his feet. “She's across the hall. I just gave her a sedative, that's it. Please! Please no, no please.”

Din didn't bother to wait for the poor excuse of a man to stop his rambling as he left for the other room. He chose to let him live for cooperating. He was lucky. No one else would get that some treatment no matter how they begged.

He shot the control panel to the other room and the door swished open just as the last did. There were no troopers in this one. Just Amara, scrunched on a metal table with her back in a corner, eyes closed. Her head was tilted down and her hair covered most of her face from view. Din rushed forward and went to grab her arm to see if she was awake and could walk on her own.

As soon as he touched her though, her eyes snapped open wide with fear and she tried to pull away from him. He heard her speak for the first time, sounding so small, fearful and very much like the child from the recording. “Please, no more, I'm sorry i wont do it again, please no.” she was sobbing quietly. Her shoulders shook and she tried to pull away from him but he could tell she was very weak.

Din felt his anger ready to explode at her words. His heart nearly snapping in half. If he wasn't so busy trying to get the two of them out of here he would be leveling this place to the ground. He tried his best to push it away. To contain his emotions until he could deal with it later on his own. They have more important problems that currently demand his full attention. Attempting to sound as calming as he could manage in the moment he said, “its okay, its okay, your okay, it's just me, remember me? I won't let them hurt you anymore. I'm gonna get you out of here alright? Here, Please trust me. We must be quick, can you walk?”

  
  


_____ … _____

  
  
  


Amara heard the building shake around her. The alarms blared for a moment before being silenced. She heard the foot fall of storm troopers rushing down the hall outside her door. Eventually he heard blaster fire.

Her vision was reduced entirely to indistinguishable colored blobs and shadows, the sounds were all muffled and far away, and her body felt like it was made of lead and pain pulsed through her veins with every beat of her heart. She pushed herself as best she could into the corner. Her head leaned forward, hair falling in front of her face as her eyes slipped closed for a moment. She was so tired. She felt cold yet her skin burned to the touch and she was coated in a layer of sweat. It was her body reacting to the drug, and it was making her beyond exhausted.

Amara was so out of sorts that she missed the sound of the door swishing open. She felt a hand try and grab her arm. Quickly her eyes shot open. All she could see was a blurry figure, somewhat shiny. Maybe a droid? Either way she was afraid of what would come next. Fueled by the drug she pleaded with whoever had been sent to deal with her. “Please, no more, I'm sorry, I won't do it again, please no.” she felt her throat tighten and her eyes start to shed tears as a sob racked her small form.

The hand on her snapped back at her words as if they had been burned. there was a pause before a familiar comforting voice spoke through the haze, “its okay, its okay, your okay, it's just me, remember me? I won't let them hurt you anymore. I'm gonna get you out of here alright? Here, Please trust me. We must be quick, can you walk?” it sounded like her father. Maybe it was her father. She could barely remember where she was anymore.

“Daddy?” she asked one of her hands slowly lifting out for the blurry figure in front of her.

There was another pause before the figure spoke again, “No, dad’s gone. It's me, Din, your big brother, You remember me, right? I’m sorry I'm so late Amara, but I’m here to break you out okay? We have to go now, you have to trust me okay? I won't let them near you anymore, got it? Come on.” The figure's voice sounded like it was about to break. It sounded sad.

Amara didn't have the strength to fight back when the figure claiming to be her brother handed her what she recognized as the baby Grogu and then picked her up in one arm. She knew she was on the smaller side, only reaching a full 5 feet but still. He had to be built like dura steel to be able to maneuver her so effortlessly. He held her to him the same way she used to hold Grogu on her hip. Arm going under hers, around her waist, and gripping under her opposite thigh to keep her up.

She held the kid tightly to her chest with one arm and wrapped her other around her brother's neck. They made their way through the building. Her brother took so many turns and occasionally shot off a blaster. Turning his body when he did so that she and the kid were shielded from view.

Amara’s brain couldn't keep up with what was happening around her. Eventually she allowed her heavy eyes to close as she took steady but strained breaths. What felt like only moments after she’d drifted off she was roused back into consciousness by her savior suddenly stopping. She could tell there were people talking, but it sounded so far away. She tried to reach through the foggy haze that the drug submerged her in but she wasn't able to grab anything. She gave up trying to understand as there wasn't anything she could do regardless of if she could hear what was benign said or not.

Once she felt her protector start to move again, this time at a slower pace, she figured whoever was talking must have finished their conversation. This was a good sign right? As Amara started to allow herself to fall back into a light sleep state she was jolted back awake by her body being practically tossed into a hover cart. Her grip on the child was as strong as durasteel. She could feel someone practically laying on top of her. Holding themselves up on their arms. They smelt like blaster residue, metal, and a forest after a summer rainstorm. It was a weird mix but pleasant nonetheless. They were covering her like a shield while they also tried to shoot back at whoever was attacking them.

All the noises were so loud and the flashes of light were so bright. Combined with the smoke and being pinned under another person caused Amara to have flashbacks to the night she was taken away.

Her Momma had been shot. Her dead body collapsed on top of Amara’s tiny form. she was not strong enough to move from under her mothers dead weight. She watched as she saw her Daddy’s back running off. Her older brother was yelling something and reaching back but there was nothing he could do. The drug coursing through her system amplified the flash backs.

Eyes watered and a few tears started to spill down the sides on her face, she looked up at the metal helmet above her as she spoke with such desperation and raw fear, “please don't leave me again, Din.”

She could feel her brother stiffened above her. He carefully leaned the top of his helmet on to her forehead in a quick movement and used his free gloved hand to clumbily wipe at her tears. "I won't. It's okay, I promise. Never again. Shhhh." She heard his voice almost break at trying to get the words out before he turned his head away and sent off a few more blaster shots.

Amara felt a wave of heat rush over them as she watched Din move his flame thrower around to try and push back their enemy. She felt tired. So very tired. The fight still raged on around them as Amara decided to just rest her eyes for a second. That's all, just a rest. And within those few seconds the drug finally won, plunging her into unconsciousness.


	5. Questions and Answers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amara had no idea why the Mandalorian would come back to break her and the Baby out but she was sure as hell going to find out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to my wonderful commenter, and for the kudos. Without which I might not have had the motivation to finish this chapter so quickly. It was defiantly a doosy. I tried my best to make it not overly complicated and understandable as possible. This might be my longest chapter yet. I tried my best to fix all the typos and grammar issues but if I left any thing I apologize in advance.
> 
> Anyway I'll leave it at that. Enjoy!

The hum of an engine whirled softly around her as Amara was slowly pulled back into consciousness. Her body was shivering and damn with sweat. A headache was brewing in the back of her head and when she finally cracked her eyes open they stung, adjusting slowly to the lights of the ship.

A wave of confusion pushed her further awake. Amara’s last clear memory had been back in that lab room. The doctor had injected her with a “sedative” and everything after that was a foggy blur.

There had been alarms, and blaster sounds. A calming voice. Someone carried her in strong arms. The snippets of memories explained how she had gotten on a ship but not why the same Mandalorian who had turned her and Grogu in would have come back for them. 

She was on the thin mattress again. The door to the little room was still open as it had been the first time she woke up here. No one else was visible from where she laid but that wasn't much of a surprise as Mando seemed to work alone and someone had to fly the ship.

her body felt sluggish. Noticing Grogu was nowhere to be seen, a panic started to rise within her. The Mandalorian broke the baby out as well, didn't he? Amara vaguely remembered holding him while they escaped so Grogu must have been with them. Is he with the Mandalorian?

Her mind practically spun with anxiety over the small green child's whereabouts. It spurred her into motion, bolting upright the world around her started to spin. First letting the dizziness take a moment to settle she threw her legs over the side of the bed and went to stand. 

Immediately she noticed two things. Number one, her shoes were gone allowing her bare feet to touch the cold metal floor. Number two, she was no longer wearing the same dirty clothes she had been back when she was drugged. Her clothes had been replaced with a large dark long sleeve shirt. The hem fell down to her knees and the sleeves ran slightly past her finger tips.

She felt thankful for being out of the thin grim covered shirt and pants. Though not entirely so considering more than likely it was Mando who had changed her. She felt herself swallow thickly as she slowly pulled up the hem of the shirt. Seeing her underwear still in place she let out a breath she didn't know she was holding and let the shirt fall back down.

She used the wall to support herself as she made her way out of the bunk. Poking her head out the open hatch. She quickly spotted the ladder that must lead up to the cockpit. That's where she assumed she would find the Mandalorian and the baby. 

She considered staying hidden down here for longer where she could think out a plan in secret, but she had too many burning questions. Her instinct to feign mute in front of those she did not trust clashed with her need to drill the armored man for all the answers she could squeeze out of him. In the end she knew she would have to speak to him if she intended to clear her confusion.

The need to know and hope that the baby would be safely up there won over her fear as she looked around for something to defend herself with if need be. Just because this man had broken them back out of the imperial compound doesn't mean he wont try and sell them to someone else for a higher price.

On the floor by the closed ramp a small blaster pistol caught her attention. It didn't look like the one the Mandalorian used earlier. It looked like it was in need of a good cleaning and as far as Amara had seen Mando had taken care of his weapons religiously. It must have belonged to one of the beings who had been shooting at them earlier. Not thinking too much further into it she bent down and picked it up.

Standing back up she blinked the returning blurriness from her eyes. Using her free hand to wipe some of the sweat off her forehead, a shiver overtook her form causing her to wrap her arms around herself. It was starting to become clear that the drug must have been leaving her system. It had always left her with a withdrawal like fever and disorientation in the past. Seems like this time would be no 

Using her free hand to balance herself along the wall Amara made her way back toward the cockpit as quietly as she could. Grabbing the ladder rung one handed she slowly made her way up. Her hand was sweaty and arms felt weak but she managed not to slip.

When she was finally up and standing she saw the door to the cockpit was open. The Mandalorian sat in the pilot's chair with his back to the door. Grogu was in his hoverpram next to him. He was playing with a silver ball and babbling to Mando constantly. He in turn would occasionally make a small grunt of acknowledgment while flipping a switch here and turning a dial there. They hadn't noticed her approach yet.

She lifted the blaster pistol toward Mando with both hands to try and hold it steady. She could shoot him right now and then take over the ship. She and the baby would be able fly to some remote uninhabited world and hide out, but she knew that wouldn't work. She'd never have the guts to pull the trigger on someone who had their back turned. Never mind someone who had just potentially saved her and the baby when he didn't have any obligation to. Then there was that pesky fact that she didn’t actually know how to pilot a ship anyways.

She decided her best course of action would be to use the gun as a bluff and ask her questions. Adjusting her grip more securely she finally spoke to catch his attention. “Why did you come back?”

Amara tried to make herself sound like she was the one in charge as best as she could but knew it was somewhat lacking. She realized she probably looked like a child pretending to be an adult rather than someone who was dangerous and to be listened to. The tone had always been enough to keep Grogu in line if he became too rowdy, but that didn't mean it would work against the Hardened, trained warrior she was now trying to use it on.

As soon as the words left her mouth Mando spun his chair around hand reaching for his own blaster and froze. His body went rigid under his armor at the sight of her. Or maybe it was the sight of her pointing a blaster at him. In his defense he probably wasn't expecting a gun. Without moving his visor away from her he slowly raised his hands, palms out, on either side of his head on the universal sign of surrender.

“Woah now, hold on, where'd you get that?” he sounded like he was attempting to sound calming but there was bite of uncertainty to his words.

“I'm asking the questions,” Amara tried to sound commanding again but as she did she felt the dizziness from earlier wash over her again. her whole body swayed sideways a moment before she had to lean her shoulder against the door frame for support. The weakness of her body was obvious to both of them. The Mandalorian would have no problem disarming her if he wanted to. This fact just left her confused over why Mando didn't act and just seemed to humor her sore attempt at an interrogation.

“Just take it easy, you're not well. Why don't you just put the gun down and-?” His attempt at deescalating was cut off by Amara’s panicked yet demanding voice.

“No! just answer my questions.” Amara quickly shook her head, getting frustrated and desperate. It was a bad move as the room around her spun again at her quick movements and took a few minutes to settle back down.

“Alright! Alright, I’ll answer your questions, but first let's just calm down for a moment. Okay? They had you pretty drugged up. I'm not going to hurt you so why don't you just put the gun down and we can talk.”

Amara stood there thinking about his request for a moment. She was exhausted. Her limbs protested all of her movements. Knowing she wouldn't be able to keep standing much longer she decided to try and negotiate a few of her own concessions. “First you have to push the baby back to me. And you have to stay over there, hands where I can see them. Then… then I'll put it down.”

Mando sat there for a moment before nodding his helmet. He moved slowly and made sure she could see what he was doing. Giving the floating crib a small push it slowly moved back toward her position by the door. It stopped next to her and Amara looked down briefly to see Grogu staring back at her wide eyed and somehow seeming disapproving of her current actions. She felt a tinge of betrayal that the baby would look at her like that when she was just trying to keep him safe from this potentially dangerous stranger in front of them.

Deciding that Grogu was unharmed, she slowly bent down, knees to her chest and placed the blaster to her side on the metal flooring. Before she let it go she looked back up at Mando and waited to see if he would make a move. To her relief he stayed true to his word, or his head nod, and stayed on the other side of the room in his chair, both hands still visible.

Finally letting go of the weapon she sat on the floor in the doorway exhausted. Amara took a deep breath hoping the influx of fresh oxygen would clear her mind. It must have worked because she finally noticed she wasn't cuffed anymore. She wasn't sure how she could have gone so long and done so much without realizing the handcuffs were gone, but she figures it wasn't a good sign that it took her so long to figure it out.

“Why would you come back for us? Who are you?” she was tired. It bleed into her voice. She didn’t care if she sounded weak anymore. The small amount of energy she woke with was gone along with her failed attempt at seeming commanding.

Mando shifted slightly in his chair before setting back. He seemed tired as he tried to come up with an answer. “That's… a complicated question.” he seemed almost nervous. It was a weird emotions to equate with the same Mandalorian who had taken on an entire band of Nikto mercenaries, charged the Jawa’s crawling fortress without a moment's hesitation, and attempted to kill a Mudhorn for its egg with only a blaster and a vibroknife. He even broke into the imperial compound to break her and Grogu out without any of them seeming to have taken major injuries. If he could do all that then how could answering the questions of an exhausted feverish woman make him so nervous. Amara just sit here quietly and waited for her answer.

“My name Din Djarin.” he paused as if to gauge her reaction.

Something about his name sounded familiar. As she thought about it her hand reached up to the pendent that was luckily still hanging around her neck. Fiddling with it she remembered the message on the back. She looked down at it, taking in the words. It was the only connection she had to her life before the white walls of the imperial base. The only reason she secretly remembered her name after years of being referred to only as SEA-001.

“You share my brother's name.” she sounded far away and sad. Her mind wandered off to the small snippets of memories associated with her lost family for a moment.

Looking back up at the Mandalorian she now knew was named Din Djarin, she saw his body was stiff as a board. His sudden change in body language had her on edge again as well. Before she could say anything else she heard him speak, low and shocked, “you still have it.”

His statement confused her. Furrowed her brows together and looked back down as her necklace then back up at the Mandalorian. She assumed he must have meant since he had changed her, because when else would he have seen it. The pendant was always kept tucked into her chest wrap and that hadn't been messed with as far as she could tell. It wasn't making any sense. She gripped the pendant tighter in her hand as she studied Mando.

“I don't understand… What about my necklace? Why wouldn't I still have it I've been asleep the entire time since you changed me, how could I have lost it? Why do you care about it?” a thought came to her mind and she reacts without thinking. Pulling the pendent closer to her chest defensively she half baked sounding weary and confused, “you can't have it. I won’t let you take it!”

Now it was Din’s turn to seem confused. “What? No, I'm not going to take it from you. I made that, don't you remember?” he was starting to sound a bit irritated. “Do you not recognize the name of your own family?”

And he was right, she didn’t recognize the last name. She didn't even know her last name. She could barely remember her life before the empire. Barely remember her older brother with the same brown messy hair and kind eyes who shared his name with this armored man. But she did know her family were not Mandalorians. They were just normal village people on a backwater planet that got destroyed by a bunch of droids.

“I do not know my last name, I can barely remember a time before the empire had me. But I know me and my family weren't Mandalorians, we were just farmers.” she shook her head in confusion and sadness and surprising hope she was wrong all mixed together in a dizzying amount of emotions.

The Mando named Din sighed irritatedly. As he spoke it was clear he was trying to stay calm but was struggling with his own emotions over this conversation as well, “I wasn't born a Mandalorian. After the empire whipped out our village I was saved by one of the Mandalorians who tried to come to our aid, they were too late for most. I thought you and our parents to be dead. I saw you and our mother get shot. If I had known I never would have let you get left behind.” the guilt dripped off of each word as his helmet tilted toward the metal floor.

She decided she needed clearer, harder proof before she would even entertain the idea that he just so happened to be her, thought to be, long dead family member. It felt a bit too convenient. Maybe it was some ploy to get her to open up so he can use her the same way the Empire did. Unfortunately at this point with no other way for her to tell if he was lying without asking the Dreams, but that would just be confirming her abilities were real if he was unsure. There was also the chance he didn't know about them and he was telling the truth to his identity.

Amara sighed to herself. She knew she had to take the chance. Seeing through the door way into his past was the only way left. Assuming he gave her permission to use her abilities on him it was going to exhaust her greatly. With her already feverish state courtesy of the so-called “Sedative” she could be out cold after for a couple days.

She would have to be certain he wouldn't hurt her while she was out. It wasn't much of a question. At the very least he wouldn't harm her, if he was going to do that he would have already. Plus she had been unconscious around him twice so far and nothing bad has happened, she doubts he would suddenly change his mind on that matter now.

“I- I want to believe you are telling the truth...” Amara trailed off for a moment before standing up again. “I need proof. This isn't something I can just take the word of a masked stranger on.”

Mando just sat there a moment taking in her words, “I don't know what I can do to make you believe me.”

Amara stood up off the floor slowly, wobbling as her legs tried to feel less like jelly. “If you’d… uh, if you'd let me I could find out for myself. I just… how do I explain this in a way that makes sense…”

Amara could here Mando mumble under his breath, “Try using your words.” She was pretty sure she wasn't supposed to hear it but it lit a spark of annoyance in her that urged her on with her explanation.

“I have the Ability to see the past and the future through my dreams. It's why I was being held by the Empire. I was giving the designation “Scientific Experimental Asset” for a reason after all. They mostly made me do interrogations. I can see a specific person's past and future through direct skin to skin contact. Its, uh… pretty extremely draining… and, uh, can get painful for me if the subject resists…” she began trailing off once she realized she probably sounded crazy.

Mando just sat there for a moment, visor facing Amara where she stood a couple passes away from him. He sighed loudly and placed helmet in his hands. “This is more of that magic hand stuff again, isn't it?”

Amara didn't understand what he meant by “magic hand stuff” but before she could ask he continued.

“Okay… Okay, if that's what you need to believe me then Alright, I’m just gonna go on record that I don't like this, and after we are done we’re never doing this again. If you're going to root around in my head try not to look around too hard, Just get what you need fast and get out. I don't understand any of this and it feels wrong on so many levels, but I’m going to trust you.”

His words shocked her. It was not what she was expecting. He trusted her? Why? He barely knew her. Unless he was that certain in his knowledge of them being siblings. Amara didn't respond in words.. Taking the last few steps to close the gap between them. Holding her hand out expectantly she waited for him to comply.

Mando nodded his head once more, slipping a glove off his hand before placing it in hers. His hand was large, callused and warm.

“A quick word of warning. Try not to sever the link please. Just try and relax and let me do it all or else it's going to hurt. Ah, I mean me, it would hurt for me, you wont feel anything. It shouldn't take long. And uh I may pass out for a few days with how bad a shape I'm in already. I'll be fine, just need to wait till I wake up on my own.”

“Wait what?” Mando's visor shot up to look at her as he sounded concerned but Amara didn't wait.

Without another moment wasted Amara closed her eyes and felt out to the force. She tried to focus past his physical form and open up to the World between worlds, it was hard to do when it wasn't the Dreams opening the gate way for her but she managed. She used Mando’s hand as a rope to guide her to what she wished to see.

She felt the world around her still. A thick quietness expanded all around her. When she opened her eyes again she stood in a dark void dotted with many stars. Walking forward a pathway began to materialize itself before her. Bright pure white lights zoomed around forming lines that snaked through the endless darkness from all directions, they flowed around her begin, zigzagging to and fro until she eventually stopped walking and they came up to spiraled into a large circle in front of her. They formed a very interactive design around the circle and she admired it for a moment.

Time moved slowly here. She knew in the physical world only a minute at most would pass before the link would be severed but in here her mind had as much time as she wanted. Still she didn't want to postpone finding her answers. Soon She lifted her hand and held it in front of the circle as it began to flash images to her of the past. Of Mando’s past. They flickered so fast she couldn't make out what was being shown, but that was okay since they weren't the memories she was looking for.

The flashing began to slow down until she was left with images of two small children. A 7 year old boy carrying a 2 year old girl on his back as they ran around with some other children playing a game long since forgotten.

Next, The same boy waking up in the middle of the night sleepy and irritated as the girl climbed in his bed claiming to have had a nightmare. He complained but still looped his arm around her and hugged her closer to him in an attempt to comfort her fears.

Amara watched as the boy and his father worked on carving a small stone into a bird shape. The last detail work was being finished and a happy cheer was let out between the two.

Then, pictures of the two children sitting around a table with their parents. Cake being shoved into the small girls face with a smile. The boy laughed and called her gross. They celebrated the girl's third birthday.

Finally the circle showed images of smoke and fire, of an all encompassing fear as the boy screamed out for his mother and sister, as he watched them fall at the hands of a battle droid. She listened as he begged and pleaded with his father to turn back, to not leave their family behind.

She knew that the girl had been her. This man was telling the truth. Somehow despite the odds the force had brought the two of them together again. She could feel the Mandalorian's hope at having a second chance to protect his family.

Amara was overwhelmed to say the least. Din was alive. He had found her. He had SAVED her. Her family was alive. She wasn't alone anymore. She knew she would have to process it all at a later time. Letting her hand fall back down to her side she released her grasp on his mind. The white lines that had formed the gate way into Din’s memories began to swirl around again. Going their different ways and deconstructing the circle they had built. Eventually she was left in the dark void again and closed her eyes to exit the World Between Worlds and enter a deep and well needed sleep.


End file.
